Beijing, China
Feb 28th 2010
In an odd deja vu like experience I found myself at a ticket counter in the Sydney airport only to be informed that our flights to China were booked out of Brisbane...
Twenty years ago, I was on a similar 'round the world excursion with four friends trying to get from Sydney to Brisbane only to find out that our tickets were from Melbourne to Brisbane, not Sydney. We ultimately had to get our bags off the plane and hitch hike up the coast which turned out to be the best choice anyway...but I digress.
... So as I stood there at the Cathay Pacific service desk counter I couldn't help but smile. What a wonderful mishap to have. Something so random that evokes such strong memories of a journey long past. Anyway, what else could I do but turn over my family's fate to the capable hands of the Cathay Pacific staff. What good was a printed itinerary showing our flights from Sydney to Beijing if our real booking was for a flight out of Brisbane 13 hours in the future. After determining that our tickets were as restricted as they get and there was little chance of changing them, the agent said it was looking like we were going to need to travel the 900km to Brisbane on our own...we knew the route.
The kids were naturally a bit concerned that their parents in fact did NOT have their act together, but ultimately they both responded to our assurances that all would be OK. As Jackie made repeated calls to the states to get someone to look up the number for our travel agent, (thanks Marshall and Carla!) I continued to appologize and smile at the desk agents. By 10:30 things were looking up and as they checked our four bags they handed me four boarding passes and an express pass for security, I got the feeling that we would make it to Beijing after all!
13 hours later we arrived in the modern, architectually spectacular Beijing airport. It was terrific to come out of customs to see our friend Mary who picked us up at the airport. Mary and Paul Asel have opened their arms and their home to welcome us to China's capital city.
The lesson in all of this? Sure, there is the "double check your itinerary" carefully lesson, but the more important lesson is that mistakes and mishaps happen and the outcome often depends on your attitude and ability to roll with the punches. As Bob Bitchin, publisher of Lattitudes and Attitudes magazine is fond of saying, "Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure." Thanks to a healthy mix of good luck and positive attitude our China Adenture has begun!
Paul
4 comments:
So how did it all get fixed? Did the Cathay folks take pity on you, did you beam the family to Brisbane, or did your travel agent fix it?
Write ON!!
What a great resource!
Great to read that you are having fun. Take lots of pics and post them!
Or, as this branch of the Handly family likes to say, "All adventure is merely inconvenience in retrospect!"
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